For those who want to seek enlightenment, here it is, given by God to us, the true message of salvation.
Chapter One
British researcher Anton de Grey thinks that he now knows how to extend human life. A recognized name in the gerontology research , the Cambridge-educated biochemist believes that in the future, we will be able to develop technologies that will stop the ageing process, and even, conquer death. He develops an approach called “engineered negligible senescence” or SENS.
De Grey believes that for men to live forever, he must solve seven problems. First, he must find a way to curb cell loss. Second, man must solve the problem of apoptosis-resistance or the tendency of cells to refuse to die when they are supposed to. Third and fourth: genetic mutations in the cell nucleus and in the mitochondria which weaken the body’s natural defenses against diseases. Fifth, solve the riddle of the accumulation of junk material inside and outside the cell membrane and lastly, how to sever the chemical links of these inappropriate materials with bad cells.
Basically, for De Grey the problem is basic: how to find a way to manage the wear and tear of cells. And the solution is equally basic: its either we replace our cells with good ones without affecting our bodies or replace our worn-out parts.
Science has not been able to answer all these things yet. Advances in biochemistry, molecular biology and nanotechnology are slowly unraveling things about the nature of cells. Fact is, these advances are quite astonishing that it leads a futurist to surmise that indeed, in the next twenty years, we might be able to conquer not just ageing, but death itself.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil is predicting that humans will be able to live a thousand years in the next 15 to 20 years. A highly respected scientist, Kurzweil believes that nanotechnology holds the key in answering De Grey’s problems. By injecting nanobots into the bloodstream of humans, Kurzweil hopes that these would replace our worn-out parts in the cellular level, enabling us to extend our lives.
Fact is, Kurzweil even hopes to replace our carbon-based bodies with bio-robotic material. This, says Kurzweil is the future---a human with robotic parts, imagine the Terminator, that’s what Kurzweil is proposing.
Imagine yourself living a thousand years, as a robot, not as a human. We may be able to replace our fleshy parts with titanium or a biorobotic material. Imagine using robotic eyes, a nose, even a robotic ear or heart, what’s left of your fleshy self? Nothing. Yes, you’ll probably live maybe 2,000 years but as a robot, not entirely human.
Let’s just accept the brutal fact—we carbon-based beings have expiration dates. We deteriorate and we die. Our cells cannot live forever, unlike, say bacteria. We take in material from our environment. Yet, it is a fact that the more we take these things in, the faster we deteriorate. Free radicals roam in wanton fashion in our world. There are not enough anti-oxidants to keep our organs fully functioning.
Another thing: let’s accept the fact that we were not fashioned to live forever. Look at our bodies—we don’t have those natural defensive tools that protect us from harm. We don’t have skin that is thicker than other animals. We don’t have the ability to regrow lost limbs. What does that tell us?
We were fashioned not to live forever. Our bodies are corrupted.
We die because we are flesh. Flesh is mortal. We depend on so many things to keep us alive.
We depend on food. We depend on keeping the right body temperature to keep all our vital organs well and functioning. If one vital organ fails to function, then, we die.
At most, flesh lives for 120 years and then it dies. Why does flesh die? Flesh is made of corruptible material. It wastes away. Why ? Whenever we take food, we nourish ourselves yet, we actually deteriorate. The more we eat, the higher the chances of us dying.
When we take food, it does feed our bodies, only for a definitive length of time. Nowadays, despite new technologies, man can only live by about 120 years, and that’s it.
Observe—those who live unholy lives are the ones who die early. The more we sin, the more we live dirty and filthy lives. An example—if we eat dirty food, we die. If we smoke, we die. If we do things that are abominable, we die. We die due to corruption of our bodies. We corrupt our bodies because we live unhealthy and unholy lives.
Romans 7:5 says that while we are in the flesh, the motions of sins, work in our own bodies to “bring forth fruit unto death”. That is the truth. A sinful lifestyle leads to death, because it corrupts the body.
We die because we are flesh. Ezekiel 18:20 says that a soul that sinneth die. Why does a soul die? It is unclean. A sinning soul is unclean, his heart is not pure (Prov. 20:9). For all that is born of a woman is unclean (Job 15:14). And there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good and sinneth not (Eccleasiastes 7:20).
If a soul is unclean, it dies. It may live long lives, but it eventually corrupts itself and dies.
Our ancestors live long lives because they walked with God. What does this mean? It means that their lifestyles follow that of God’s precepts.
Enoch lived three hundred sixty five years before God took him (General 5:24). Enoch ascended into heaven—flesh, bones and spirit. Enoch must have known several secrets to a long life because shortly after him, his descendants lived unusually long lives—Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty nine years, while his son Lamech, seven hundred and seven years ( Genesis 5:27, 31). Even Noah, the descendant of Lamech lived 950 years, just 19 years short of Methuselah (Genesis 9:29).
In Genesis 6:3, God declared that flesh can only live by 120 years, yet even after God declared these, several of Noah’s descendants lived more than this: Shem, son of Noah, lived five hundred years. And Arphaxad too-- four hundred and three hundred and five years (Gen. 11:32).
How did Enoch live such a long life? Hebrews 11:5 has an explanation—it was his faith in God that gave him the will to live such a long life. Enoch believed God, when God told him that he would not see death. His unshakable faith in God earned his rewards.
Faith, by itself, is that one thing that allows man to live a very long life. Christ once said that if one has a faith like the size of a pea, one could ask a mountain to move, and it would. Faith in God and walking with God, by following His Laws and His precepts, earns one the right to live long and eventually, even the right to be with God everlasting.
Enoch was one of two individuals whose bodies, souls and spirits, ascended into heaven, without first, tasting death. The other one, Elijah, was also taken into the heavens like how Enoch was taken bodily to God’s holy realm. They must know something which we don’t.
We know that Enoch did not taste death because he had faith. When one believes in God, he surely starts believing in the transformative power of God. He starts making changes in his lifestyle. He begins walking with God, and shuns from sinning, because committing sins is cutting one’s self off from God (Number 15:31). When one is cut off from God, he does not enjoy the mercies and glories of God.
Death
Death is the end of life. Our breath, which came from God, is like a puff of smoke. When this smoke comes out of our bodies, we die. And when we die, we cannot go back to the physical world where we came.
“ The breath in our nostrils is a puff of smoke, reason a spark from the beating of our hearts; put this out and our body turns to ashes, and the spirit melts away like idle air. (Wisdom 2:2-3)
“ Yes, our days are the passing of a shadow, from our death there is no turning back, the seal is set: no one returns” (Wisdom 2:5)
When we die, we all go back to God, the Father of the Spirits. The question is---are all spirits going back to the Originator, meaning God? No.
Impure spirits, or those who continually sin, will not be accepted by God, who is the purest of the pure of Spirits. Impure spirits are likened to the negative pole of a magnet—they repel Godliness. God will surely spake these spirits out of His midst. John 5:29 says , “Some who does good will wake up resurrected, while those who worked iniquity, a resurrection of damnation.”
John 5:29 is important for us to understand because this means that in the last days, every single spirit will be transformed. All of us will be resurrected. Yet, not all of us will be with God in the end.
In the Book of Daniel, every single one who sleeps in the dust of the earth shall awake in those last days, some to everlasting life and some to “shame and everlasting contempt.” Only the righteous will merit the reward of life eternal while those who perpetually sin, shall go away into everlasting punishment.
Why is it that those who sin will not be rewarded with everlasting life? Those who sin live in the flesh, which, according to the scriptures, is not of God’s. Whoever lives by the dictates of the flesh is simply, not of God.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:16-17)
How do we live forever?
The body is flesh while the spirit lives forever. If we can just merge the flesh with the eternally living spirit, we can live forever. Is it possible for a man to live forever with his spirit clinging to his soul?
What is life eternal? John 17:3 says that life eternal is for man to know God as the only true God “and Jesus Christ”. So, there are two requirements: one needs to know God as the true God and Jesus Christ. Why is it important to know Christ? In John 3:36 it says that those who believed in the son of God merits everlasting life.
Why is the belief in Christ an essential requirement to acquire eternal life? Why is it that Christ described himself as the way to the truth and eternal life?
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